Sons and Lovers (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (69 page)

1
(p. 35)
safe working:
The term refers to a coal stall in which dangerous gases were not present. In safe workings miners could use green or yellow candles, which threw light that was much stronger than that of the safety lamps they used when combustible gases were present.

2
(p. 38)
wedding at Cana
: In a miracle recounted in the Bible, John 2:1-11, Christ and his disciples attend a wedding at Cana in Galilee at which Christ turns water into wine.

3
(p. 41)
Joseph
: This figure from Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible was the founder of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. When his ten older brothers sold him into Egyptian slavery, Joseph gained the favor of the pharaoh by interpreting the pharaoh’s dream of seven lean cattle swallowing seven fat cattle and seven lean ears of corn swallowing seven fat ears of corn. In time, Joseph became food administrator and saved his family from famine.

4
(p. 47) “
The Child’s Own”:
The Sunday School Union published this monthly magazine from 1852 to 1923.

1
(p. 55)
barm-man:
Barm is the fermented froth produced in brewing alcoholic beverages and used to leaven bread or to ferment beer; a barm-man was a salesman who distributed barm to households, going from door to door.

2
(p. 55)
cobbler:
Seashells or horse chestnuts were threaded on a string to make a cobbler, a tool in a boy’s game that a player won by breaking an opponent’s cobbler, or conker, by hitting it with his own.

3
(p. 58)
Women’s Guild:
An offshoot of the Co-operative Wholesale Society (see note 4 below), the Guild was a national organization that grew into its own during the 1890s. It supplied the early feminist movement with many influential leaders. Due in part to the vocal efforts of groups like this, women thirty years and older received the right to vote in 1918 and women twenty-one and older in 1928.

4
(p. 58)
Co-operative
Wholesale Society: Founded in 1863 on the principles of social reformer Robert Owen, the CWS provided discounts to members on goods bought and a dividend on all purchases. The CWS began manufacturing products in 1873 and was also involved in insurance, banking, publishing, and education; it is still a powerful organization in Britain.

5
(p. 59)
Mechanic’s Hall:
Started in the 1820s, this foundation offered artisans and skilled workers the opportunity for self-education.

6
(p. 61)
Board school
... Nottingham: In 1870 the Elementary Education Act put the national system of board schooling in place. Board schools were state-run and free to all children aged five to thirteen. High schools were private schools that sometimes offered scholarships to children of the lower classes.

7
(p. 63) as rich as
Croesus:
The last king of Lydia (560-546 B.C.) and conqueror of western Asia Minor, Croesus acquired great wealth through trade.

8
(p. 63)
Lafayette:
The Marquis de Lafayette, Marie Joseph (1757-1834), was well known in England in the early 1900s. He was a statesman and officer and friend to George Washington. Lafayette fought on the colonists’ side during the American Revolution, was commander of the National Guard during the French Revolution, and was instrumental in bringing about the adoption of the tricolored French flag.

9
. (p. 63) transpires: Originally this term meant “to exhale, to pass in a state of vapor” from the Latin roots
tran,
“across,” and
spirare,
“to breathe.” Around 1810 the term began to appear in American usage with the meaning “to occur.” Though this meaning was initially considered to be incorrect in Britain usage, it slowly came into common use.

1
(p. 66)
Band of Hope:
This Christian youth society was founded in 1847 to teach working-class children the virtues of thrift, cleanliness, hard work, and self-control, as well as the “evils” of drink.

2
(p. 75)
kicking against the pricks:
The meaning here is “rebelling.” The phrase is a reference to the Bible, Acts 9:5, in which Saul, on the road to Damascus, falls to the ground and hears the voice of Christ say, “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”

3
(p. 76)
knits the sleep:
This is a reference to Macbeth (act 2, scene 2), by William Shakespeare. Macbeth refers to “the innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care, the death of each day’s life.”

4
(p. 86)
And he thought ...
that the moon should be turned to
blood:
In the Bible, a blood-red moon is often a sign of the coming apocalypse; see the Bible, Joel 2:30-31; Acts 2:19-21; and Revelation 6:11-13.

1
(p. 98)
Disability Fund:
The Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897 mandated that workers injured on the job receive compensation.

2
(p. 104)
Charles I:
The king of England and Scotland from 1625 to 1649, Charles I was beheaded for many alleged intrigues and disloyalties during his reign.

3
(p. 109)
Castle on its bluff of brown, green-bushed rock:
The medieval castle in Nottingham, built by the Normans and nearly dismantled by 1660, stands on bedrock riddled by caves and tunnels.

4
(p. 122) “
You remind me of Elaine in the ‘Idylls of the King
”: In Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s
Lancelot and Elaine
, part of his ten-book “Idylls” poem cycle (1859), Elaine loves the knight Lancelot “with that love which was her doom.” She dies from the immensity of her love and, by her request, her body is placed in a boat and set on the river to float toward Camelot. The legend inspired the Pre-Raphaelite artist John William Waterhouse to paint the scene in 1888.

5
(p.125)
an Arabian Nights:
In
The Thousand and One Nights,
a collection of stories originally in Arabic and commonly known as
The Arabian Nights,
Scheherazade entertains her husband, Schahriah, with tales in order to delay her execution.

1
(p. 140)
The Lady of the Lake
: In Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King,” the Lady of the Lake is an obscure, supernatural figure who steals Lancelot in infancy and raises him in her impenetrable castle in the middle of a lake. King Arthur grasps his magical sword Excalibur from her hand rising from the water.

2
(p. 142)
Whitsuntide:
This English and Christian holiday on the seventh Sunday after Easter celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles on Pentecost.

3
(p. 144)
a little thing of Annie Swan’s:
The best-selling Scottish author Annie Swan (1859-1943) was sentimental, easy to read, and moralistic. She departed from her usual style to write under the names Mrs. Burnett Smith and David Lyall.

4
(p. 147)
Goose Fair:
An annual Nottingham event that dates from the sixteenth century and may have originated as early as the thirteenth century, the Goose Fair is held in early October. The fair has always attracted vendors, sideshows, and circus-like amusements and provided ten days of merriment until 1876, when it was restricted to only three or four days in the interest of civic peace, law, and order.

5
(p. 149) erysipelas: A patient who contracted this inflammatory skin disease, usually through an open wound, was in danger of blood poisoning, pneumonia, and rheumatic fever. Before the widespread use of antibiotics, erysipelas was often fatal.

6
(p. 153)
Oh, my son
—
my son:
This is a reference to the Bible, 2 Samuel 18:33, where David mourns the death of his son Absalom. Paul Morel echoes the cry later in the book, “Oh, my love—my love.”

1
(p. 159)
a Walter Scott heroine:
Scottish poet and novelist (1771-1832) Sir Walter Scott wrote in the Romantic period and specialized in complicated plots involving aristocratic lovers and Scottish peasants; see also note 1 in chapter 6.

2
(p. 159)
Ediths, and Lucys
...
Guy Mannerings:
All are characters from the novels of Sir Walter Scott (see note above). Edith is from
The Lord of the Isles
(1815), Lucy Ashton from T
he Bride of Lammermoor
(1819), Rowenas and Brian de Bois Guilbert from
Ivanhoe
(1819), Rob Roy from
Rob
Roy (1817), and Guy Mannering from
Guy Mannering
(1815).

3
(p. 160)
“Colomba,” or the “Voyage autour de ma Chambre”:
French novelist Prosper Mérimée published the novel
Colomba
in 1841. (He also wrote Carmen, which was later turned into an opera by Georges Bizet.)
Voyage autor de ma chambre
is a novel by Xavier de Maistre (1763-1852).

4
(p.162)
Skegness:
D. H. Lawrence spent a month at Skegness, a resort town on the east coast of England, recuperating from his first attack of pneumonia in the winter of 1901-1902.

5
(p. 162) King
Cophetua’s beggar-maid:
According to legend, the African King Cophetua was impervious to love until he saw a beggar maid. He fell instantly under her charm and asked her to be his queen. The legend inspired the Pre-Raphaelite artist Sir Edward Burne-Jones to paint “King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid” (1884), which now hangs in the Tate Gallery in London.

6
(p. 164)
the other cheek:
The reference is to the Bible, Luke 6:29: “And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.”

7
(p. 167)
tam-o‘-shanter:
Originally, Scottish plowmen wore a cap known as the tam-o’-shanter, and it was later modified as a headdress for girls and young women. The tam-o‘-shanter as we know it is made of a soft wool with a flat top, and the circumference is about twice that of the headband.

8
(p. 169)
It’s because ... is inside really
: D. H. Lawrence describes the philosophy of the Impressionists, a late-nineteenth-century school of French painters who were concerned with the study of light and its refractions. Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Paul Cezanne are perhaps the best-known painters of the group. Although the young Paul lacks the vocabulary and education to recognize a strain of Impressionism in his own art, he comes to it later (see page 329) Some critics have compared D. H. Lawrence’s prose style to that of an Impressionist painting.

9
(p. 169)
ponder these sayings
: In the Bible, Luke 2:19, Mary rejoices in the birth of Jesus. The angel has told the shepherds of the birth, and they spread news of the things the angel tells them. “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”

10
(p. 170)
Reynolds’s “Choir of Angels”:
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), an English portrait painter, was admired for his paintings of women and children done in the tradition of Van Dyck and Titian. This painting titled “Choir of Angels” was very popular and much reproduced.

11
(p. 171)
women who went with Mary
: The reference is to the Bible, Luke 24:1-10, in which Mary Magdalene and others find Jesus’ tomb empty.

12
(p. 175)
nationalizing of the land:
The debate over nationalization, or state ownership of industry and agriculture, began in Edwardian England, with socialists and radicals calling for state control of coal, railways, and land. The issue was much debated at the turn of the century because many small farms were economically threatened by the inexpensive grain imported from the United States. The movement reached its height after 1945 and came to a stop with Margaret Thatcher’s government (1979-1987).

13
(p. 178)
gaby:
See page 49 for alternate spelling, “gabey.” This is a term for a fool, or simpleton.

14
(p. 180)
Hemlock Stone:
This irregularly shaped mass of red sandstone is one of the most famous landmarks in the British Midlands. While the Hemlock Stone has often been linked to the Druids, who built similar stone monuments throughout Britain, geologists now say the formation is entirely natural.

15
(p. 184)
“annunciation”:
In the Bible, Luke 1:26-38, the Angel Gabriel comes to Mary and announces that she will be the mother of Jesus.

16
(p. 185) letters
of the law:
The reference is to the Ten Commandments, which God delivers to Moses in the Bible, Exodus 20:1-26.

17
(p. 185) Bank Holiday
crowd:
Bank holidays are days on which the banks of Britain close, and are the equivalent to public holidays in the United States. Most workers in both the public and private sectors have Bank holidays off.

18
. (p. 186)
Mary Queen of Scots
: Mary Stuart (1542-1587), Queen of Scotland, was imprisoned several times, for her belief in Roman Catholicism and other misdeeds, in Wingfield Manor. She was eventually beheaded.

19
(p. 187)
Crich Stand:
The reference is to a well-known signal beacon that stood atop a hill outside the village of Crich in Derbyshire.

20
(p. 188)
Veronese’s “St. Catherine”:
Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) was an Italian painter of the Venetian School who specialized in large, detailed, and brightly colored paintings, almost always of religious themes. Saint Catherine is the patron saint of girls.